Hill Yeah

Vinegar Hill has long been a hidden destination for Federal-style architecture and cobblestoned streets. Now it's also home to one of Brooklyn's best brunch spots, courtesy of Vinegar Hill House.

This new restaurant has already earned a respectable reputation--and long waits--for chef Jean Adamson's Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-influenced cooking, which she prepares in a wood-burning oven in the back of the Colonial-looking space. But the new weekend brunch service makes Vinegar Hill House the pre-Brooklyn Flea destination, especially when you can grab a table on the sunny patio.

There's always a daily special on hand; recently it was a fragrant, coriander-rubbed skirt steak and eggs ($18). On the main menu, try the ful medames ($9), a modernized version of a popular Egyptian breakfast dish, consisting of smooth, pureed fava beans topped with cucumbers, black olives and lemon.

For a sweeter start, go for the pillow-soft sourdough pancake ($9) covered with velvety ricotta and caramelized bananas. For those imbibing, the Swan Song 2 ($9) takes the standard glass of fresh orange juice and punches it up with applejack and grenadine. And the coffee ($3) is dark, French-press-rich and ever-flowing.

So put on your walking shoes, board the F train and get that side of maple-vinegar-glazed bacon ($5). On this trip, you can stroll it off afterward.

Vinegar Hill House, 72 Hudson Ave., Brooklyn (between Front and Water sts.), Brooklyn; 718-522-1018 or vinegarhillhouse.com